"Fiat money is backed by men with guns; Bitcoin is not. So why should this thing have any value?"--Uber statist economist Paul Krugman.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The first thoughts the morning after . . .

I stayed up way too late last night, and I have a doctor's appointment, so this will be brief, to be fleshed out later.

First, congratulations to President Obama, Governor Markell et al: it was a hell of a good night for the Democratic Party on almost every level.

Second, I am more than pleased with the Libertarian performance on Election Day, both nationally and within Delaware.

Details later, but here's the headline: the votes are not quite all counted, but Gary Johnson is over 1.1 million votes as I write. In raw numbers that blows away the prior high vote total for a Libertarian presidential candidate, and when the final percentages are figured out it should equal if not surpass the percentage total (the old record is 1.06%; he's over 1% by some at this moment unguessable fraction). He actually got over 1% in about 18 states, over 2% in another 6 or 7, and over 3% (if Alaska holds) in two. His lowest performance was 0.5% in several states, but those were mostly big states in which he nonetheless piled up tens of thousands of votes.

In Delaware, Johnson shattered the old Libertarian presidential total, just like David Eisenhour shattered the old statewide Libertarian total. Numerous candidates (whom I will detail this afternoon) broke 3,000, 4,000, or 5,000 votes. In local elections we had candidates break 1,000 and others break 10%.

More Libertarian votes were cast in Delaware this year than have ever been cast before. It is small, I know, but it defines an existing base to build upon.

Finally, the GOP is giving its death rattle in Delaware. Mitt Romney was the only statewide GOP candidate to break 40%, and he did that by the skin of his teeth. The new norm for the statewide GOP vote is the high 30s. I'd like to say that Libertarian candidates were spoilers, but frankly the Republicans could not keep any races close enough to be spoiled. Moderate Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats need to realize that the next major party in Delaware is going to be the Libertarian Party, if we continue to build it. In other words, I view yesterday's vote as a floor rather than a ceiling.